Thoughtful Dragon

The Accidental Photographer

I’m a bit strange in the way I do photographs. Sometimes I really try and craft an image, placing everything or every person in just the right places, following most of the rules of composition, etc. But mostly I just take my camera and bag of lenses and go for a walk. Most anything that catches my eye gets a picture taken.

Most of these are crap. Some aren’t. Either way they all get downloaded and rated. My rating system assigns one star to start with. It’s the lowest it goes, so one star photos really aren’t worth much to me. One star photos do not get posted to anything. Two star photos are alright and may be posted to Facebook. Three stars are actually something interesting. These usually are the highlights of the albums I post. Four star photos are much fewer and farther between. These photos represent my best quality work and have the potential to be printed and added to my portfolio.

This image is a four:

The rest of my pictures of this moth are worthless. But this one happened just right. To be honest, I don’t know if it’s good because I’m skilled, or because it just worked out. Some times I think my most notable photography skill is noticing good images that miraculously occur.

For me, photography isn’t an exceptionally exciting, pleasurable or even engaging activity. It’s more like a different way of seeing. One doesn’t just stop seeing (except in unfortunate circumstances), and just the same, I take pictures. Most of what you see is boring and uninteresting; most of my photos are boring and uninteresting, but sometimes I see something wonderful. Those are my four stars.